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Saint Albans is a small and historic community on the Macdonald River in New South Wales, Australia, approximately 94 kilometres (65 miles) north of Sydney. St Albans and the surrounding region had a population of 305 persons according to the 2011 census.

History
The Darug tribe of Aboriginals, often spelled Dharug or Daruk, were the original residents of the Hawkesbury district. The river, which they called Derrubbin, was a major source of food and transportation. The Darug people farmed fish, eels, water fowl, and mussels in the river. They also used the river for transportation in bark canoes.

It was first inhabited by Europeans in 1794 in an attempt to secure arable land to feed the growing population of Sydney’s prison colony. Lieutenant Governor Francis Grose submitted plans for the first 22 farms on the Hawkesbury River in the current Pitt Town Bottoms area in April 1794. In June 1795, a British force led by Paterson harassed an Aboriginal camp protesting the landtakes (who later regretted the necessary injustice).

The “Village of Macdonald” was surveyed in 1837, but on January 26, 1841, it was renamed St Albans after the City of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England, north of London.

Because of its proximity to water, the Macdonald Valley was an important agricultural area during the early colonial settlement of New South Wales. But, as railways and major agricultural development west of the Great Dividing Range were built, the Macdonald Valley fell into a desolate backwater. The valley is often referred to as the “Forgotten Valley” by locals.